Wait. Let’s be real for a second. If you’ve spent any time scouring the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount or obsessively pausing the intro sequences of Campaign 3, you’ve probably seen the name pop up. The Critical Role Age of Umbra isn't just some throwaway line in a lore book. It’s the connective tissue between the literal gods walking the earth and the messy, political, monster-filled world Matt Mercer has built over the last decade.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a mystery to most casual viewers. We talk about the Calamity constantly—and for good reason, because watching Brennan Lee Mulligan break everyone’s hearts in Exandria Unlimited was a cultural moment—but the Age of Umbra is different. It’s quieter. It’s darker. It is the long, cold hangover after the party where the world almost ended.
What the Age of Umbra Actually Is
Basically, the Age of Umbra is the period of time immediately following the Divergence. To put it in perspective, the Calamity was the war. The Divergence was the moment the gods were kicked out behind the Divine Gate. The Critical Role Age of Umbra is the eight-hundred-year span of rebuilding that happened in the dark.
It’s called "Umbra" for a reason.
The world was broken. Most of the high-magic technology of the Age of Arcanum was gone—either buried under the ruins of floating cities like Aeor or simply forgotten because the people who knew how to use it were dead. For the first few centuries, Exandria wasn't a place of grand kingdoms or heroic adventurers. It was a survival horror game. People were hiding in caves. They were fighting over scraps of food. They were trying to figure out if the sun was ever going to look the same again.
Why Does This Era Keep Coming Up?
You might think, "Why should I care about something that happened 400 years before Vox Machina?"
💡 You might also like: Finding every Hollow Knight mask shard without losing your mind
Because the ghosts of the Critical Role Age of Umbra are everywhere in the current campaigns. Think about the Kryn Dynasty in Wildemount. Their entire civilization is built on the discovery of the Luxon beacons during this dark period. While the rest of the world was shivering in the ruins, the drow were underground, finding a new way to live—and a new way to avoid the traditional cycle of life and death.
Then you have the Dwendalian Empire. That whole powerhouse started as a collection of desperate tribes in the Zemni Fields trying to stay warm. The grit that defines the humans of Western Wynandir? That comes from the Umbra.
It wasn't just about politics, though. This was the era when the "modern" pantheon of Exandria really took root. With the gods gone behind the gate, religion changed. It became less about seeing a deity manifest in front of you and more about faith, symbols, and the echoes of power left behind. If you’re playing a Cleric or a Paladin in an Exandria campaign, your entire tradition was likely codified during these eight centuries of shadow.
The Misconceptions About Post-Calamity Life
A lot of fans think the world just "reset" once the gods left. It didn't.
Exandria was a scarred, traumatized planet. One of the biggest things people get wrong about the Critical Role Age of Umbra is the idea that magic just vanished. It didn't disappear; it became dangerous. Without the structures of the Age of Arcanum, wild magic was rampant. Curses lingered. The landscape itself was mutated.
📖 Related: Animal Crossing for PC: Why It Doesn’t Exist and the Real Ways People Play Anyway
Imagine trying to build a village when the forest next door literally eats memories. That was Tuesday for an Umbra survivor.
It’s also important to realize that this era is where the divide between the "Civilized" and "Wild" lands became permanent. Before the Calamity, magic made travel easy. Afterward, the world got big again. Distances mattered. If you lived in Tal'Dorei, you might never hear from someone in Marquet for a century. The isolation of the Age of Umbra created the distinct cultures we see today.
Notable Events and Figures
While Matt hasn't released a 500-page textbook on every year of the Umbra, we know the highlights.
- The Rise of the Julous Dominion: Before the Dwendalian Empire swallowed everything, the Julous Dominion was the big player in the Marrow Valley. Their fall is a classic "Umbra-era" tragedy—a civilization trying to find its feet only to be crushed by the next rising power.
- The Founding of Whitestone: Yep, the de Rolo legacy starts in the tail end of this era. It’s a story of pioneers finding a literal glowing rock in the middle of nowhere and saying, "We can build something here."
- The Shifting of the Ley Lines: We’re seeing the payoff of this in Campaign 3 right now. The way magic flows through Exandria was permanently altered during the transition into and out of the Umbra.
The Critical Role Age of Umbra ended roughly around the year 800 PD (Post-Divergence). That’s when the "Age of Erudition" began—the current era where magic is being rediscovered, universities like the Soltryce Academy are flourishing, and people are finally starting to look back at the past with curiosity instead of pure terror.
How to Use the Age of Umbra in Your Own Games
If you’re a DM running a game in Matt’s world, don’t ignore this period. It’s the best source for "weird" loot.
👉 See also: A Game of Malice and Greed: Why This Board Game Masterpiece Still Ruins Friendships
Items from the Age of Arcanum are too powerful—they break games. But items from the Critical Role Age of Umbra? Those are fascinating. They’re "jury-rigged" magic. They are artifacts made by people who only half-remembered how the old world worked.
- Environmental Storytelling: When your players find a ruin, ask yourself: is this from the Calamity or the Umbra? A Calamity ruin is grand and tragic. An Umbra ruin is desperate and scrappy.
- Family Legacies: Maybe a player’s great-great-grandfather was one of the first people to map the Lush Gut forest after the clouds cleared.
- The Feeling of Scarcity: Even in "modern" Exandria, people are still afraid of the dark. That cultural trauma comes from the Umbra. Use it to flavor your NPCs.
The truth is, we are still learning about this era. Every time Campaign 3 dives into the history of Ruidus or the ancient pacts of the Wardens, we get another piece of the puzzle. The Critical Role Age of Umbra isn't a dead history; it’s the foundation of everything the Mighty Nein, Vox Machina, and Bells Hells have ever touched.
Actionable Steps for Lore Hunters
If you want to master the history of this period, stop looking for one single "Age of Umbra" chapter. It doesn't exist. Instead, do this:
- Read the "History of Wildemount" section in the Explorer's Guide. Specifically, look for the dates between 0 PD and 800 PD.
- Cross-reference the Tal'Dorei Reborn guide. Compare how the recovery on that continent differed from the chaos in Shadycreek Run.
- Watch the "Lore of Exandria" videos on the Critical Role YouTube channel. They are short, but they highlight the atmospheric shift from the "shining" past to the "shadowed" recovery.
- Analyze the Kryn Dynasty’s religious texts mentioned in Campaign 2. They offer the most detailed look at how life functioned while the surface world was still in shambles.
The Age of Umbra reminds us that even after the world ends, people keep going. They build. They fail. They try again. That's the real heart of the Exandria story. It’s not about the gods; it’s about the people left behind in the dark, trying to find a light.
Next Steps for Your Campaign
To truly bring this flavor to your table, start by introducing "Malformed Artifacts"—magic items that work perfectly 90% of the time but have quirks reflecting the unstable magic of the Umbra era. Focus on the transition between survival and civilization in your NPCs' backstories to ground them in the deep history of the world.